𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐧 • 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

15; shady commissions

"you really have no future in arts."

".... but i just got two commissions, hyung."

wonwoo turned around and furrowed his brows at minghao, whose eyes widened. "are you muttering profanities?"

"no! no, wonwoo hyung, i meant that i already got commissions!" minghao waved his hands around, in an attempt to enlighten wonwoo. "i don't cuss."

"it's just because you have this... portrait description depiction talent thing that you're getting popular. your lighting and pointview, minghao. it sucks." wonwoo stressed, turning back around to pick up his suitcase. "lessons are done for today. we're going back to the common workplace to see if there are any commissions."

minghao bows politely at wonwoo, picking up the jar of dirty paint water to get rid of later on. "i will work hard, wonwoo hyung."

"oh, sure." wonwoo waved minghao off, already walking out of the room. "now come on."

minghao obediently followed, the jar of dirty paint water in both of his hands. it occasionally spilled on him, but he waves it off since the worst type of liquid he's ever submerged in was a swamp with alligators. dirty paint water is nothing.

(he doesn't like soiling his clothes, though. seungcheol owned minghao's clothes.)

"hello, wonwoo and minghao!" jeonghan greeted, as the two entered the artists' common workplace. "how did lessons go?" he added, in a much lower volume.

minghao slightly smiled at jeonghan's jest, nodding at him. "well."

"aw, okay. anyways, do you all have plans for dinner?!" jeonghan yelled out, grabbing a finished commission. "seungcheol will pay for our dinner if you all want to go out!"

"jeonghan hyung, you're conning him even if he's not around!" seungkwan protested, seeming to take seungcheol's side. "more dinners that he pays for, lesser wage we get!"

"he can't do that." joshua replied, grabbing a set of acrylic paint. minghao was slightly surprised at that. "he'll go to jail if he lessens our wage. priority is tax, and then his artists!"

"but i kinda feel bad for him...." seokmin trailed off, peeking over his canvas. "what if he becomes poor and we're rich?!"

"that's even more great," wonwoo adds, walking to his empty easel. he drops his suitcase beside his feet, stretching his fingers. "my wrists are going to fall off at this rate."

"don't be mean, all of you! he's nice enough!" mingyu defends. "seungcheol hyung is a nice boss!"

the door unlocks, and spews out seungcheol.

jeonghan rolled his eyes. "speak of the devil."

"what?! were you guys talking about me?" seungcheol furrowed his eyebrows, closing the door behind him. minghao pursed his lips. minghao is not a snitch. "i couldn't care less. anyway, you've got a commission, minghao."

mingyu perks up, clapping hysterically. "YAY!! is it another portrait?!"

"you seem to be more excited than i am, mingyu," minghao looks over at the latter—who pursed his lips and nodded. seokmin could be seen smirking mischievously as he nudged mingyu. "but thank you."

"anyways, i doubt you would like to take this. the sender is from.... miyuni."

gasps and open mouths.

minghao barely had any reaction, but inside, he was nervous. who could have spreaded the word that he was an artist in zuivet for someone in miyuni to give a commission to him? what if he's wanted there?! what if it's a trap?!

"oh god, what does the commission say?!" mingyu, seungkwan and seokmin quickly scurried over, snatching the envelope from seungcheol's hands. their boss sighs, massaging his temples instead.

"canvas company, block 3, road 17, madri city, zu—"

"skip the address!"

"okay, sorry," seungkwan apologized, while mingyu and seokmin laughed. "dear sire xu minghao. we are two very close friends who wish to have a painting made. we are both from miyuni, which may be a hard place for you to go to, but i hope you can. best, kwon soonyoung and lee jihoon."

joshua blew a raspberry, walking towards seungcheol to teasingly wrap an arm around his shoulders. "pfft, that sounds so fake! and minghao has this auto descriptive portrait memory thing, right?! why don't we just ask them to describe themselves and have minghao paint it?"

"we can't do that. they didn't say they wanted a portrait." seungcheol wriggles out of joshua's grasp, only for him to get suffocated by jeonghan's side hug.

"which makes it even more suspicious to me!what would they want?!" jeonghan exclaimed. "right, minghao?!"

"i do think so too. i don't know how they could have heard of me from such a faraway place." minghao states, his thumb and index placed on his chin in deep thought. "but... it's not very far, though, only takes 4 hours on train compared to the observatory."

seungkwan, seokmin and mingyu's eyes widen. "minghao, are you implying that...?!"

"i will go." minghao said, with a whole voice and a made-up mind. "i can handle myself if something bad happens."

"that's far though!"

"i know where that is. i lived in miyuni, remember?"

"people will see you!"

"i'm... much cleaner and presentable than the last time they saw me, so i think that's okay. they won't recognize me unless they look too hard."

"but—" mingyu sighs, running out of things to say. "—this is worrying me!"

minghao sighed endearingly, walking closer to mingyu. the other two artists their age were cooing, for a reason minghao didn't understand. he brushes it off, like always.

minghao briefly touches mingyu's shoulder, before retracting his hand and pocketing it. was that right? was that how they do pats? if minghao did it correctly; was it comforting? "no need to worry. i cannot be cornered. i'm the strongest person in miyuni."

seungcheol sighed, watching minghao try and reassure his friends.

seungcheol was proud of minghao.

he never inteded for minghao to become this sociable and friendly, nor did seungcheol plan on letting minghao become an artist. but seungcheol was glad he did. he was very glad he let it happen.

seokmin unexpectedly steps up, and crosses his arms. "i'm going with minghao!"

"WHAT?!"

wonwoo sighed, raising a hand. "me too."

"WONWOO??!"